I just got an order of fish from Tankstop and the water came in at 24ppt salinity which is roughly 1.018 sg, which is like brackish water? My tank sits at 35.5ppt, what should I do in this situation?
Fish Came in Brackish Water?
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Do you use a qt tank before adding the fish to your display? Being able to slowly change salinity is one of the reasons that I keep a qt tank.
The lowest fish ever came in was 29 ppt and I acclimated for the better part of 3 hours until it matched my tank water. I'm not sure how I can acclimate 11 ppt without shocking the fish.
a receiving tank that is cycled is needed. right here is perhaps the top cause of initial loss of fish, not cycling issues. acclimation and disease preps are the killers. Jay has said in his forum repeatedly this level of salinity increase needs to be over 4 days or so, maybe 3 tops. sloooow.
some fish survive a same-day bringup out of raw strength/they get osmotic shock but do recover sometimes/truly stressful/ but this should be a 3-4 day process in a holding tank of some kind, that is cycled or receiving constant water changes. not prime, don't use prime or amchlor for this.
I figured I wouldn't be able to acclimate them in one day. I really can't believe they keep their fish in brackish water. Must be trying really hard to hide diseases.
I have not known acclimation was such an issue until this year. I've spent the last 15 years telling folks cycling didn't kill their fish/ammonia, I just never was sure what was killing them till I started watching Jay's forum heavily. very neat clue hunting for sure. new cyclers really need to know this for sure.
Still a really good idea to QT.
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That doesn't sound Right, How long since you've calibrated your meter?..
@Eric Cohen
If it's Actually 1.018, That fish should take a few days to get it up to where it needs to be.
Ideally allow your qt to evaporate out fresh to raise the SG slowly.
@Eric Cohen
If it's Actually 1.018, That fish should take a few days to get it up to where it needs to be.
Ideally allow your qt to evaporate out fresh to raise the SG slowly.
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Neither had most of us, till we lost most of them to disease.
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You can't in a day
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That would be great, if all of the most worrisome fish diseases stayed suspended in the water.
They don't. UV is a great management tool.
Velvet will laugh at your UV while ich holds brooklaynella's legs up for a kegstand on your 120W UV but to each their own.
getting the thread where Jay recommends the bringup technique one sec
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1.018 is lower than reef specific gravity, but I wouldn't call it brackish. It's pretty common for sellers to keep fish in that range of salinity. Really, the only retailors that don't keep fish at lower salinity are those that 'QT' for you.
That is definitely not brackish. A lot of stores run the salinity at that as they come in from the wholesalers around that salinity and they can acclimate the fish over days. I honestly don't think they need to be acclimated for THAT long but if you QT the fish it should be easy. If you cant get them into a QT or don't need to (Idk anything about tank stop), then I'd drip them for a few hours in a container in a bucket maybe with a rock or biomedia from your tank to handle any ammonia issue (and also maybe a tiny heater if you have one). If that salinity was truly a problem, I personally know hundreds of fish that would be dead
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